When my kid comes home and tells me something bad happened at school, which causes me to be furious, I have nowhere to take that for the next 15 and a half hours.
So I might (I can't remember ever doing so) come on to mumsnet and 'kick off' in here. Get my anger out. Explore my reasoning. Get some other perspectives. See what teachers think and be totally unreasonable.
That way when I go into school the next day, I can be calm, reasonable, polite. I can casually ask if it really happened that way. I will know what I can expect to be done and what outcomes I want.
Surely that is one of the reasons mumsnet exists. So that people like me have somewhere to explore their rage and possible unreasonableness.
I'm sure the teachers on here would rather I kicked off on here than had a night of no sleep, with what ifs going around my head, before I head to school with my anger greatly increased?
My parents, all their friends and loads of my friends are teachers. I try to be a helpful parent to the school. I don't want to cause trouble for the school or make their job harder.
But it is my primary job to raise my children. To protect them from harm and neglect. To ensure they get an education suitable to their age, ability and needs.
Most teachers and I (even my best mate) disagree on the best way to do this.
School isn't childcare. But you have a duty to care for my child whilst they are in school. If you can't do this, then we have a problem.
Parents are expected to drop their 4 year old infants off at school with random adults who they have possibly never met before, but if we question anything that happens we are teacher-bashing, apparently.